Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledged more compensation Wednesday for the victims of the worst forest fires in Russia's history, dpa reported.
"There are cases that are not covered by government decrees," Interfax news agency quoted the prime minister as saying. "We have to correct that."
The extra cost for the government would be 2.2 billion roubles (74 million dollars), Regional Development Minister Viktor Basargin said.
Up to now only victims of forest fires are being compensated, not those whose property was damaged by peat bog blazes.
The government's human rights commissioner, Vladimir Lukin, said neither the victims nor officials had been adequately informed about the compensation payments.
Putin has pledged that all buildings that went up in the flames would be rebuilt within the next several months and ordered the installation of modern cameras to monitor the reconstruction.
Basargin said 50 burnt-out settlements could not be rebuilt in their original location and would have to be moved elsewhere. He said 150 villages had been badly damaged in the fires.
The flames were on the retreat Wednesday, prompting the civil defence ministry to seek the lifting of emergency regulations in two areas - greater Moscow and the autonomous central republic of Mordvinia.
Fires had been put out in some 2,500 hectares on Wednesday, but were still raging in another 20,000 hectares, said the head of the national crisis centre, Vladimir Stepanov.
The fires sparked by Russia's worst-ever heat wave have killed more than 50 people and destroyed in excess of 2,000 homes, according to reports.
Meteorologists say the heatwave will soon be over, bringing hopes of badly needed rain. dpa bvi mis Author: Benedikt von Imhoff